persons serve, to be members of boards of examiners, and may at any time substitute any other person in said service living in such State or Territory in the place of anyone so selected. Such boards of examiners shall be so located as to make it reasonably convenient and inexpensive for applicants to attend before them; and where there are persons to be examined in any State or Territory, examinations shall be held therein at least twice in each year. It shall be the duty of the collector, postmaster, and other officers of the United States, at any place outside of the District of Columbia where examinations are directed by the President or by said board to be held, to allow the reasonable use of the public buildings for holding such examinations and in all proper ways to facilitate the same.

"The [chief] examiner is an officer to be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate." (Opinion, Atty. Gen., May 26, 1886, 18 Op., 411.)

Section 3 of the civil-service act of January 16, 1883 (22 Stat., 405), authorizes the detail of persons in the official service of the executive departments to be members of the boards of examiners in the Civil Service Commission, but does not authorize such detail for any other purpose or service. Opinion of December 22, 1904 (25 Op., 301), adhered to. (Opinion, Atty. Gen., Apr. 8, 1905, 25 Op., 879.)

Through subsequent legislation contained in the appropriation act the salary of the secretary is now $2,500 a

Duties of public officers.

year and that of the chief examiner $3,500.

No detail of clerks or other employees from the executive departments or other Government establishments in Washington, District of Columbia, to the Civil Service Commission for the performance of duty in the District of Columbia shall be made for or during the fiscal year 1916. The Civil Service Commission shall, however, have power in case of emergency to transfer or detail any of its employees herein provided for to or from its office force, field force, or rural carrier examining board. (Act approved Mar. 4, 1915, 38 Stat., 1007.)

SEC. 4. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of Accommodations, etc., for the Interior to cause suitable and convenient rooms and commission. accommodations to be assigned or provided, and to be furnished, heated, and lighted, at the City of Washington for carrying on the work of said commission and said examinations, and to cause the necessary stationery and other articles to be supplied and the necessary printing to be done for said commission.

SEC. 5. That any said commissioner, examiner, copy- Frauds. ist, or messenger, or any person in the public service who shall willfully and corruptly, by himself or in cooperation with one or more other persons, defeat, deceive, or obstruct any person in respect of his or her right of examination according to any such rules or regulations, or who shall willfully, corruptly, and falsely mark, grade, estimate, or report upon the examination or proper stand

classification.

ing of any person examined hereunder, or aid in so doing, or who shall willfully and corruptly make any false representations concerning the same or concerning the person examined, or who shall willfully and corruptly furnish to any person any special or secret information for the purpose of either improving or injuring the prospects or chances of any person so examined or to be examined, being appointed, employed, or promoted, shall for each such offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not less than ten days nor more than one year, of by both such fine and imprisonment.

Custom s SEC. 6. That within sixty days after the passage of this act it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, in as near conformity as may be to the classification of certain clerks now existing under the one hundred and sixty-third section of the Revised Statutes, to arrange in classes the several clerks and persons employed by the collector, naval officer, surveyor, and appraisers, or either of them, or being in the public service, at their respective offices in each customs district where the whole number of said clerks and persons shall be altogether as many as fifty. And thereafter, from time to time, on the direction of the President, said Secretary shall make the like classification or arrangement of clerks and persons so employed in connection with any said office or offices in any other customs district. And, upon like request and for the purposes of this act, said Secretary shall arrange in one or more of said classes, or of existing classes, any other clerks, agents, or persons employed under his department in any said district not now classified; and every such arrangement and classification upon being made shall be reported to the President.

Post office classification.

Second. Within said sixty days it shall be the duty of the Postmaster General, in general conformity to said one hundred and sixty-third section, to separately arrange in classes the several clerks and persons employed, or in the public service, at each post office, or under any postmaster of the United States, where the whole number of said clerks and persons shall together amount to as many as fifty. And thereafter, from time to time, on the direction of the President, it shall be the duty of the

Postmaster General to arrange in like classes the clerks and persons so employed in the Postal Service in connection with any other post office; and every such arrangement and classification upon being made shall be reported to the President.

of

classifications.

Third. That from time to time said Secretary, the Revision Postmaster General, and each of the heads of departments mentioned in the one hundred and fifty-eighth section of the Revised Statutes, and each head of an office, shall, on the direction of the President, and for facilitating the execution of this act, respectively revise any then existing classification or arrangement of those in their respective departments and offices, and shall, for the purposes of the examination herein provided for, include in one or more of such classes, so far as practicable, subordinate places, clerks, and officers in the public service pertaining to their respective departments not before classified for examination.

Examination required for

and promotion.

war veterans

SEC. 7. That after the expiration of six months from the passage of this act no officer or clerk shall be ap- appointment pointed, and no person shall be employed to enter or be promoted in either of the said classes now existing, or that may be arranged hereunder pursuant to said rules, until he has passed an examination, or is shown to be specially exempted from such examination in conformity herewith. But nothing herein contained shall be con- Preference to strued to take from those honorably discharged from the under sec. military or naval service any preference conferred by the 1754, R. S. seventeen hundred and fifty-fourth section of the Revised Statutes, nor to take from the President any authority not inconsistent with this act conferred by the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of said statutes; nor shall any officer not in the executive branch of the Government, or any person merely employed as a laborer or workman, be required to be classified hereunder; nor, unless by direction of the Senate, shall any person who has been nominated for confirmation by the Senate be required to be classified or to pass an examination. SEC. 8. That no person habitually using intoxicating Intoxicating beverages to excess shall be appointed to, or retained in, any office, appointment, or employment to which the provisions of this act are applicable.

SEC. 9. That whenever there are already two or more members of a family in the public service in the grades

Exclusions.

beverages.

Members of

family.

covered by this act, no other member of such family shall be eligible to appointment to any of said grades.

Whether there are already two or more members of a family in the public service is not a question to be considered in determining the question of admission to examination, as the state of things existing at the time of examination may disappear before appointment; the disability is material only as regards appointment. (Op. Atty. Gen., June 12, 1883, 17 Op., 554.)

This section applies to the entire classified service, and where there are already two members of a family in one department, the appointment of a third member in another department is prohibited; the prohibition is not limited to offices or places in the same department, but extends to all offices or places in the public service which are classified. (Op. Atty. Gen., Dec. 9, 1884, 18 Op. 83.)

"The Civil Service Commission is authorized and required to withhold from certification the name of a person, two or more members of whose family are already in the public service under this act." (Op. Atty. Gen., May 25, 1907, 26 Op., 261.)

No restriction, on account of there being other members of the family in the service, will be placed upon the certification of a person who is already in the service and attains eligibility for certification. (Minute of commission, Nov. 24, 1914.)

"The family consists of those who live under the same roof with the paterfamilias-those who form

* *

his fireside; but when they branch out and become heads of new establishments they cease to be part of the father's family." (Op. Atty. Gen., July 12, 1907, 26 Op., 303.)

Separation merely for the purpose of avoiding the family prohibition of the civil-service act would not be a genuine separation. (Minute of the commission, Feb. 17, 1914.)

Section 9 of the civil-service act also applies to reinstatements. (Minute of the commission, Dec. 9, 1908.)

Where a person has been certified, two or more members of whose family are already in the classified service, the Civil Service Commission may, at any time prior to appointment, correct the mistake in certification; but after an appointment has been made and has been accepted by the appointee, without any fraud on his part or concealment of material facts, and the matter involved is not jurisdictional, it is then too late for the commission to attempt to correct its certification.

"The provision in quesion declares that a person shall be ineligible for appointment to any of the grades covered by the act if there are already two or more members of his family in the public service in those grades; but it does not declare that the appointment of such a person shall be void and of no effect." (Op. Atty. Gen., June 5, 1913, 30 Op., 169.)

In view of the impracticability, on account of the manner in which the appointments are made, of fully applying to expected positions the provisions of section 9 of the civil-service act forbidding the appointment of more than two members of a family in the grades covered by the civilservice act, and in view of an opinion rendered by the Attorney General June 23, 1913, that section 6 of the act of August 24, 1912, requiring reasons to be stated in writing and an opportunity given for reply before removal from the "classified civil service," does not apply to excepted positions, the term "classified civil service" in such legislation being used in the more popular sense of competitive service, the commission hereby holds that appointments to excepted positions are not subject to the restrictions of said section 9 of the civil-service act. The contrary holding in minute 4 of November 26, 1910, and such part of minute 3 of March 28, 1913, as is inconsistent with the principle involved in this ruling, are hereby revoked. (Minute 2, June 15, 1914.)

This section applies to appointments under Schedule B of the civil-service rules. (Minute 5, May 6, 1915.)

Section 9 of the civil-service act, forbidding the appointment of more than two members of a family in the classified service, will hereafter be held not to apply to temporary employees, which heretofore have been held (minutes of July 9, 1909, and Mar. 25, 1912) by the commission as coming within the prohibition of the statute. (Minute of commission, Mar. 6, 1917.)

In an opinion of July 30, 1918, the Attorney General held that the appointment in the War Department of Miss Sophie B. Goldman was illegal, as there were at the time of her appointment two members of her family in the classified service, one of whom entered the service subsequent to her examination.

It was also held that the removal of residence after appointment for the purpose of evading the disability im

posed by section 9 did not seem adequate, nor fairly within the ruling of the Attorney General in his decision of July 12, 1909 (26 Op., 303), that a bona fide removal from the family rooftree and the setting up of a separate establishment excludes the person so removing from the family within the meaning of the statute so as to make a subsequent appointment valid.

In view of conditions existing in Washington, D. C., due to the influenza epidemic and the inadequate housing

facilities, the Civil Service Commission is authorized as a war measure to certify to the executive departments and independent establishments in the District of Columbia for probational (or permanent) appointment the names of persons who, by reason of having two or more members of their family in the service, would otherwise be barred from consideration for such appointment. (Executive order, Oct. 28,

1918.)

tion by MemCon

SEC. 10. That no recommendation of any person who Recommendashall apply for office or place under the provisions of this bers of gress. act which may be given by any Senator or Member of the House of Representatives, except as to the character or residence of the applicant, shall be received or considered by any person concerned in making any examination or appointment under this act.

Political assessments and

SEC. 11. That no Senator, or Representative, or Territorial Delegate of the Congress, or Senator, Representa- contributions. tive, or Delegate elect, or any officer or employee of either of said Houses, and no executive, judicial, military, or naval officer of the United States, and no clerk or employee of any department, branch, or bureau of the executive, judicial, or military, or naval service of the United States, shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or receive, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or receiving, any assessment, subscription, or contribution for any political purpose whatever, from any officer, clerk, or employee of the United States, or any department, branch, or bureau thereof, or from any person receiving any salary or compensation from moneys derived from the Treasury of the United States.

Sections 11 to 15, inclusive, of the civil service act are reenacted in sec

tions 118 to 122 of the Criminal Code (35 Stat., 1110); see p. 36.

SEC. 12. That no person shall, in any room or building Solicitation. occupied in the discharge of official duties by any officer or employee of the United States mentioned in this act, or in any navy yard, fort, or arsenal, solicit in any manner whatever, or receive any contribution of money or any other thing of value for any political purpose what

ever.

This section is now embodied in sec- 1110), in effect January 1, 1910. tion 119, Criminal Code (35 Stat.,

rank or com

SEC. 13. No officer or employee of the United States Change of mentioned in this act shall discharge, or promote, or de- pensation. grade, or in any manner change the official rank or com